Overview

• The APPG report warns that a single flat-rate Remote Betting and Gaming Duty would tax horse racing bets at the same rate as online casinos and slots, reducing bookmakers’ incentives to back the sport.
• Affordability checks on bettors and stalled negotiations to update the Horserace Betting Levy have already stripped millions of pounds from racing’s revenues this year.
• MPs led by co-chairs Nick Timothy and Dan Carden are calling on the Treasury to exempt horse racing from the new duty or face job losses and rural economic decline.
• Polling cited in the report finds that 53% of Britons see horse racing as a vital cultural asset and 56% support a law requiring greater reinvestment of betting profits into the sport.
• The government’s consultation on remote gambling taxation closes on July 21, with the rate for the new duty to be decided in the upcoming budget.